Doodle Bug
Williams, 1971My vote - I don't have my '71 Doodle Bug anymore but the setup Williams used in that era had the most comfortable flipper buttons I ever pushed from the 50s to today's games. Extra deep & smooth palm rails, button is flat with rounded edge, no hard surrounding bezel, button is flush with the rail when pressed.
64599353_1_x (resized).jpgQuoted from dondon4720:Did Revenge from mars have weird flipper buttons??
Quoted from pinzrfun:Putting cost considerations aside, i wonder what it would be like to have a touch-sensitive surface instead of a button, similar to a phone touch-screen.......
horrible, imagine nudging and accidentally hitting the touch surface loosing control and possibly he ball
Quoted from dondon4720:horrible, imagine nudging and accidentally hitting the touch surface loosing control and possibly he ball
Yeah, and some people probably play with their fingers actually touching the buttons a lot when they aren't even flipping, to reduce reaction time.
Hey Duncan: Will you have new "lost Harry Williams " pin ready for VFW in April or Expo in Chicago in Oct?
Hey Mark French : Good to see that you are still around, have not heard much from you since RGP days.
Quoted from pinzrfun:touch-sensitive surface instead of a button
I hate buttons or switches like that, particularly on appliances,
I would rather have analog buttons, that give you some sort of (tactile) feedback
and that can not be accidentally activated by brushing up against the appliance. (i.e. dishwasher or washing machine)
I hate the arcade type flipper buttons used in my 90s pins. I must be placing my fingertip on the edge to get good feedback, and it must be that pressing the button off-center makes the plastic sleeve wear and scrape inside, and then the button doesn't feel smooth. I change those yearly on the pins in my game room, mainly on the right side. Are their any better arcade buttons for my B/W pins??
The weirdest I ever had were on a LAH, must have been route replacements.
They were convex. It was bizarre.
Quoted from Neal_W:Are their any better arcade buttons for my B/W pins??
Problem is the aftermarket ones are rarely as good as the originals even of the same style and color. They tend to have a little casting hump right in the middle that the originals did not.
For me, I can handle just about any button, metal or plastic.
For metal, the early Williams with the switch mounted right at the button were the best.
For plastic, Ballys with seperate mounting guide from the 70s that carried over to the solid state era and the Williams from the mid 60s on.
Maybe that would be a business to get into - manufacturing high-end "super buttons" that retrofit into different era games, that have been scientifically totally redesigned and tested to be the most comfortable to the most people, make them out of precision titanium with special low-friction bearings. Hey people buy some awfully nutty things to add to their machines these days so this doesn't sound so bad... 
Quoted from frenchmarky:Maybe that would be a business to get into - manufacturing high-end "super buttons" that retrofit into different era games, that have been scientifically totally redesigned and tested to be the most comfortable to the most people, make them out of precision titanium with special low-friction bearings. Hey people buy some awfully nutty things to add to their machines these days so this doesn't sound so bad...
With color-changing micro LEDs!
Quoted from CrazyLevi:They were convex. It was bizarre.
I've been working on a Fireball '72 with buttons like that! So weird-feeling!
Quoted from frenchmarky:Maybe that would be a business to get into - manufacturing high-end "super buttons" that retrofit into different era games, that have been scientifically totally redesigned and tested to be the most comfortable to the most people, make them out of precision titanium with special low-friction bearings. Hey people buy some awfully nutty things to add to their machines these days so this doesn't sound so bad...
Hey, it's worked for people making clicky mechanical keyboards for gamers and coders:
https://www.amazon.com/Das-Keyboard-4Q-Mechanical-Tactile/dp/B07HBHMP97
...and put inserts of that gel stuff they use in shoe insoles on the face of the button so it distributes the pressure on your finger evenly. 
Quoted from frenchmarky:My vote - I don't have my '71 Doodle Bug anymore but the setup Williams used in that era had the most comfortable flipper buttons I ever pushed from the 50s to today's games. Extra deep & smooth palm rails, button is flat with rounded edge, no hard surrounding bezel, button is flush with the rail when pressed.[quoted image]
I agree. Prefer this style of plastic buttons, Gottlieb uses metal which is just another route for voltage to hit you if fish paper fails.
Quoted from phil-lee:Gottlieb uses metal which is just another route for voltage to hit you if fish paper fails.
You should have felt the zap out of one of my 50 volt Williams woodrails that was missing the fishpaper on both buttons.
That'll wake you up!
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